Government of Bihar Department of Social Welfare

NFHS III (2005-06)

Nearly 7 (69%) out of 10
women aged 20-24 married by age 18
Rural: 75.0% Urban: 40.7% Ranked 1st in India with highest incidence of child marriage.

DLHS III (2007-08)

Nearly 7 (68.2%) out of 10
women aged 20-24 married by age 18
Rural: 69.6% Urban: 50.5% Ranked 2nd in India with highest incidence of child marriage after Rajasthan.

Patriarchal perceptions & low value of the girl child Cultural Practices / Social Pressure Poverty Lack of alternatives Security Concerns

 Gender

roles and expectations hinder girls education about chastity and stigma motivate child marriage and other marriage associated costs induce child marriage

Concerns

Dowry

 In

exercise of the power conferred by section 19 of the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006 (No. 6 of 2007) the State Government of Bihar has framed the rules
Enforced in state from 11 May 2010

Silent Features
Prevention Protection Prohibition

As per the Article 9(1) of State Rules

Information regarding of likelihood of solemnization of child

marriage in any area may be given by any person orally or in writing or by post or by electronic mode to the Child Marriage Prohibition Officer, Block Development Officer, Police Station or Sarpanch of the Gram Panchayat.

As per the Article 9(2) of State Rules

The officials other than the Child Marriage Prohibition

Officer, on receiving the information of likelihood of solemnization of child marriage, shall furnish such information to Child Marriage Prohibition Officer along with this report, who shall then take an appropriate action under the provisions of the Act.

101 Sub Divisional Officers (SDOs) designated as Child Marriage Prohibition Officer 534 Block Development Officers (BDOs) designated as Assistant to Child Marriage Prohibition Officer

8471 Sarpanch of Gram Kachahri designated as Contact Authority

Special Responsibilities provided to DM, Magistrate, CWC, PRIs to act proactively on prevention, protection and prohibition of Child Marriage Practice 38 Women Helplines instructed to take up Child Marriage Reporting and act as referral body.

 Mukhya Mantri Kanya Vivaha Yojana: a scheme towards the empowerment of women in Bihar. This scheme has been designed to financially support the marriages of girls from economically disadvantaged families. This scheme also attempts to act as a catalyst against social evils like child marriage and dowry. National efforts towards getting marriages registered have also been facilitated by this scheme as financial assistance would be made available only when a marriage is registered. Under this scheme Rs. 5000/- support provided to girl through cheque.
Year 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 Total Budget Outlay 4000.00 8000.00 8000.00 9255.00 7400.00 36655.00 Expenditure 3999.21 7943.45 7960.28 3943.91 23846.00 No. of Beneficiary 78,385 1,57,256 1,57,213 78,878 1,48,000 (esti) % Expenditure 99.98% 99.29% 99.50% 42.61%

 Mukhya

started keeping in mind the rightful place of pride for a girl child in society and to assure her both safety and security. The scheme hoped to improve the sex ratio and encourage the registration of births. The scheme is in operation in all 38 districts. It was initiated in July 2008 by the Social Welfare Department, the Women Development Corporation (WDC) and the UTI asset management company.

Mantri Kanya Suraksha Yojana:

Year

Budget Outlay

Fund Transferred to UTI-MF

2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 Total

10000.00 6700.00 10541.10 10000.00 6000.00 43241.10

2600.00 6700.00 10541.10 10000.00 ----29841.00

No. of Application Received 31,517 5,92,360 3,78,482 4,35,571 4,63,94 14,84,594

No. of Bond issued

16,908 3,35,873 3,27,830 5,10,749 1,00,678 12,92,038

 Mukhya

under scheme of state government provide support of Rs. 2500 to the every students of government school studying at class IX and attend school regularly. As in adolescent age of girls, parents are very conservative and orthodox and do not feel safe in sending girls to school alone. But, the cycle scheme has changed their mentality as after getting bicycle, girls are not supposed alone and parents are very hopeful about their future. The scheme also tries to make parents greedy about their girls improvement and change the mentality to overcome gender inequality in Bihar.

Mantri Balika Cycle Yojana:

Year 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10

Expenditure 32.60 carore 54.43 carore 87.33 carore

No. of Beneficiary 1.63 lakh 2.72 lakh 4.36 lakh

 Meena Manch: Towards addressing the high dropout rate of girls from formal education an innovative concept of Girls club has introduced in the upper primary government schools of state, where all girl students of the school form a group and coordinate extra-curricular activities towards personality and skill development. Into participatory manner, Meena Manch looks after the enrolment and dropout prevention process of girls of their neighbour. Child Marriage is also a key issue of action for Meena Manch in state. Currently approx. 21323 are functional in various schools.

A pilot intervention implemented by WDC in association with UNICEF to develop women lead and managed safety net for preventing child marriage practice at family and village level Intervention made with 5933 SHGs at 20 Blocks of Gaya, Nawada and Vaishali districts More 300 community cadre development and capacitated to act as Community Resource Persons for facilitating delay marriage practice CMPOs, BDOs and Police Officials have trained. Government Programme/ Schemes Convergence process facilitated.

Initiative under process to develop a SPA on prevention of Child Marriage & Dowry Atrocity
Specific Objectives
To transform community norms that underpin child marriage through multiple channels: peer educators, formal and nonformal leaders, community-based organizations, the school system and a behavior change communication (BCC) campaign; To scale-up positive practices through integration of these interventions in ongoing multi-sector programming, To advocate for the establishment and enforcement of laws and policies that address child marriage and other forms of gender based violence at the district and state levels

 As

immediate response a scheme has been drafted by WDC to develop a community leaded process for Child Marriage & Dowry Atrocity Prevention in state with following approach:
The phenomenon of early marriage is, quintessentially, an outcome of poverty, economic deprivation, gender stigma and illiteracy. Hence, the elimination of this pernicious practice can be achieved only when concerted efforts are made to alleviate poverty, economic deprivation, illiteracy and behaviour change together with strict enforcement of the legal provisions, and providing opportunity of integrated development.

UDAAN: Programmatic Approach

STRUCTURAL IMPROVEMENTS

ALTERNATES TO MARRIAGE
DELAY IN AGE AT MARRIAGE

COMMUNITY SUPPORT

When time is not with you, no one will be with you; but unity leads strength and strength will make your winner; these are not thesis, but this is the reality for my life. I present her as an example and mobilize all the women to be self reliant and confident.

What I have seen, no one should see in future, I am making effort for this only. One Rita will make effort to save million Ritas from child marriage. Rita Jha of Khilwat, Bidupur (Vaishali) has joined Laxmi Mukhyamantri Nari Shakti SHGs in January 2010 and has associated as active member in thrift-credit and discussion at regular meetings. She got married at an age of 16 only and faced lot of problems due to poor knowledge of housework. She had also suffered from gynecological sickness during the pregnancy. Now, she has come out of the problem though confidence and saved more than 3 girls of her village.

Every home has a Pramila, who is the possible victim of Child Marriage. They need to be empowered and self reliant for changing the century long tradition of handing over the girls as cows. Pramila has joined SHG in February 2008 and started the new way of life with a difference. Thrift and Credit has not only made her confident but has also received a greater acceptance and recognition from in-laws & husband. When she got orientation on Child Marriage, she internalized that all the poverty and curse of her life is due to the early marriage. Then she has taken challenge to protect all girls of village from early marriage and prevented about 14 children from getting married. No case of child marriage has been performed in her working area. She is successful by getting community intervention done by her.

Lets shake hand to save our children Begin today